Know what you are buying before you sign it.

Before You Sign is a teardown kit for the meeting where somebody wants your signature on an AI or automation build. The questions to ask, the answers that should worry you, the clauses to get into the contract, and the three answers that mean you stand up and leave.

Card payment through Stripe. Access is immediate.

$47: ONCE. USE IT ON EVERY VENDOR YOU EVER MEET.
40: QUESTIONS, GROUPED, WITH THE BAD ANSWER BESIDE EACH ONE.
9: CONTRACT CLAUSES, WRITTEN OUT, READY TO ASK FOR.

The proposal will not tell you what you are not getting

Every proposal for an AI build describes what it will do. Almost none of them describe what you will own when it is done, who can turn it off, where the logs are, or what happens to your data on the day the relationship ends.

That is not usually dishonesty. Most of the time nobody in the room has thought about it, including the vendor, and the questions simply do not get asked because the buyer does not know they are the questions.

Then it works for a year. Then the person who built it stops answering, and you find out the account is in their name. The cheapest hour anyone ever spends on this is the hour before the signature.

Who this is for

Somebody has quoted you for an AI build, an automation project, or an agency retainer that includes either, and the number is large enough that you would like to be sure. You are the person who signs, or you brief the person who signs.

You have already signed and the work is underway. This kit is aimed at the hour before the signature, and most of its leverage is gone afterwards. The Hollow Test is free and is the better question at that point.

What you get

A PDF pack and an editable copy of everything in it, so you can put your own company name on the parts you send to somebody else.

Forty questions, in ten groups.

Ownership, access, logging, rollback, exit, data, credentials, people, running cost, and what happens when the model or the vendor changes underneath you. Each question has the answer that should worry you printed next to it, so you can score it in the room without being an engineer.

The scoring sheet.

One page. Score the vendor live as they answer. The total lands in one of three bands and each band says what to do next in a sentence. It is deliberately hard to score well by talking, which is the whole design.

Nine contract clauses, written out.

Ownership of the accounts and the code. Data export in a documented format. Credential rotation when a person leaves. A named off switch and who holds it. Log access. Repository access or escrow. Notice when the model or vendor changes. Exit assistance at a known rate. And what happens to your data when it is over.

The walkout test.

One page, three answers. If you get any of the three, the correct move is to stop the meeting. It is short because you need to remember it without reading it.

The handover pack list.

Exactly what has to be in your hands before you pay the final invoice. Print it, attach it to the contract, and the last payment stops being the moment your leverage disappears.

Two emails you can send.

The one before the meeting, which asks for the answers in writing and changes the meeting before it starts. And the one after, which confirms what was said out loud. The second one is the one that matters later.

The same questions turned on yourself.

A short version to run against the systems you already bought, because the odds are good that something already in production would fail this.

Card payment through Stripe. Access is immediate.

Compare $47 to the number on the proposal in front of you

We are not going to tell you what the average bad AI build costs, because we do not have a defensible figure for that and neither does anybody quoting one at you.

You do have a defensible figure. It is on the proposal on your desk. That is the number this kit is priced against.

It is also reusable. The same forty questions work on the next vendor, and the one after that.

Thirty days, and you decide

Read it. If it did not change a single question you were going to ask, tell us inside thirty days and we refund it in full.

You decide that, not us. No form, no exit survey, no attempt to talk you out of it.

What people ask before they buy this

Is this legal advice?

No, and the clauses are not drafted by a lawyer for your jurisdiction or your deal. They are the nine things we would want addressed, written plainly enough that you can hand them to your own counsel and have the hour spent editing rather than starting from nothing.

Will this make the vendor hostile?

A good one will answer these in about twenty minutes and several will be pleased somebody finally asked. If asking who owns the account makes a vendor difficult, you have learned something useful for $47.

Do I need to be technical to use it?

No. Every question is written to be asked by the person signing, and the answer that should worry you is printed beside it so you do not have to evaluate a technical response on the spot.

Does this work on an in house build or a freelancer?

Yes. Ownership, logs, rollback and exit are the same questions whether the builder is an agency, a contractor, or the person two desks over who is good with scripts.

What if the vendor is you?

Run it on us. Every clause in there is one we would sign, which is the only reason we are comfortable selling it.

This kit is educational and directional. It is not legal advice, it does not create a lawyer client relationship, and the clause language is a starting point to be reviewed by your own counsel against your jurisdiction and your contract. It will never tell you that an agreement is safe to sign.

Read it before the meeting, not after the invoice.

Forty questions with the bad answers marked, a live scoring sheet, nine clauses written out, the walkout test, the handover pack list, and the two emails.

Thirty days to decide it was worth it, and you are the one who decides.

Card payment through Stripe. Access is immediate.

$47 ONCE. IMMEDIATE ACCESS. THIRTY DAY REFUND, ADJUDICATED BY YOU.

WHO THIS IS FOR

$47: ONCE. THIRTY DAY REFUND, AND YOU DECIDE.